


Belonging

by Saraste



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Braids, But it's all for plot!, Dwalin and Nori have been together since before Azanulbizar, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Nori the sneak, So some canon has been thrown to the wayside, Tattoos, homecomings, matching tattoos, nwalin - Freeform, nwalin holiday exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 14:06:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13215348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraste/pseuds/Saraste
Summary: What Nori does to keep his family, home and mountain safe often enough prevents him from wearing Dwalin's braids but he doesn't mind overmuch, as there is something else that announces his belonging to those who get to look long enough: a tattoo on his hip, bearing a Khuzdul phrase, and one of a matching set of two between him and Dwalin.





	Belonging

**Author's Note:**

> This is my gift for imfarmoresweet in the Nwalin Holiday Exchange. I hope you like it, dear and happy 2018!
> 
> Beta'd by the incomparable [katajainen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katajainen/pseuds/katajainen), who is the best, always. Thanks!

*

Nori has always liked all of the physical signs on his person; braids, beads and tattoos, that show he is _important_ to someone, that he _belongs._ Their ma was wonderful, yet Nori’s displaced and wandering formative years still left him with the need to have his belonging confirmed in a tangible form as well as the loving touches and words of endearment his family more than willingly gave. He still has all the beads his mother gave him and the loving memories of the braids she used to braid into his hair, and forever aches that he cannot weave them in any longer, even when he holds onto his memories with a ferocious intensity.

Sometimes, Nori envies Dwalin for not having to hide his marks of belonging, those that mark Dwalin as _belonging to Nori_. Dwalin can always go about with his braids, with Nori’s braids and beads in his hair, provided by Nori’s deft fingers, and the rest of his braids besides, but not so for Nori. Because Nori is who he is.

Nori the sneak.

The spy.

The one who gets the job done to keep his family, his people, his mountain safe.

Dwalin does all that and more besides, but his way is not that of sneaking into places where it might not be a good thing to proclaim himself, to proclaim that he is Dwalin Fundinul, and belongs to Nori.

Not that it’s’ any secret among their own, but Dwalin is too striking to try and sneak, whereas Nori has made a career out of slipping unseen in the shadows, his identity largely unknown, or his name something else if he bothers to give one, although often enough he bears a name not of his own devising, yet none of them are ever Nori. If one would ask ten different dwarves from all across Middle-Earth about who Nori is when in disguise, each of them would give a different name and all would be surprised to learn that he is in truth the fire-haired nobody who stole the heart of the King’s cousin. Not that Thorin was King of a proper mountain when Dwalin fell for Nori and Nori decided that he didn’t want to run from what his heart desired.

So, Dwalin always gets to wear Nori’s possessiveness on his person, Nori’s love-braids and a marriage braid and any other braids Nori might use to declare his adoration, while Nori as a rule doesn’t when he’s outside the Mountain on other than visibly official business. However, that often enough includes Dwalin, so Nori gets to flaunt his love all he wants, then.

But when Nori is on his official but invisible business – scrounging up any plots which might exist, gathering up information to help solidify Erebor’s position in the region and beyond and feel about among potential allies – he cannot, for his safety and Dwalin’s, wear Dwalin’s braids, as much as it pains him. He keeps his hair nondescript besides, in simple braids and nothing like his usual flamboyant style, and dresses the part of a homeless wanderer, not declaring his home in a braid.

Yet…

There is something linking him to Dwalin, something he shares with him. A tattoo. One of a matching set of two. It’s not too intricate and looks like almost nothing at a quick glance, but it has deep meaning to them both: it’s a Khuzdul phrase with the letters interlocking so that it takes more than a glance to suss out the meaning. It’s clearly enough a love-mark for anyone who would stare too long, not that anyone would have a chance, as Nori’s body is for Dwalin alone. What makes it even more special and secret is that Dwalin inked it on Nori’s skin one long winter evening so very long ago when they were young and the memory of Azanulbizar was still fresh, making Dwalin wake up screaming, and sometimes less than himself in the dead of night. It was a time when Nori had just realized that his sneaky ways would be a help to their people, and his family above all, not just misspent distraction to his wandering surface-born soul, and that he might never get to wear Dwalin’s braids all the time as brazenly as Dwalin wore his. So Dwalin had inked the sharp letters into Nori’s hip and Nori hadn’t flinched. Afterwards, Dwalin had bandaged the newly decorated skin, kissed Nori and shown him how very much he adored him. Dwalin’s matching tattoo, made by Nori, is on his hip too, and Nori likes to put his hand on it when Dwalin rides him, goes wild when Dwalin does the same to him when their positions are reversed.

Nori loves his tattoo.

In some ways it might even be better than braids, because even if he was stripped naked and his hair shorn, he’d still have Dwalin’s love written on his skin, always there, short of someone flaying him. It’s a comfort to him when he's away from Dwalin because he still remembers the inking and the words that accompanied the pricks to his skin, the kisses after. When Nori closes his eyes he can imagine Dwalin there beside him, can remember his steady hand and his soft murmurs.

But despite everything, Nori likes coming home best. Dwalin always lays him bare and pampers him with a nice bath, kisses and cuddles him, makes sure he’s not hiding an injury and gives him pleasure if Nori wants and needs it right then more than sleep or feeding, or in a reverse order, depending entirely on Nori’s mood. Whatever the case, Dwalin always ends up kissing the tattoo, kneeling by Nori’s side or sprawling all over him. And he often enough takes Nori in hand, encouraged by his hummed assent, kissing at his tattoo and touching him until Nori comes with a cry of his name.

Nori lets Dwalin have his indulgences, content to revel in his adoration and drinking in the comfort of Dwalin's touch. He gives Dwalin his words and his body's pleasure and sinks into the reality of _belonging._

When it's Dwalin who has the full attention of Nori, he is equally pliant, allowing Nori to look him all over and kiss him, and _know_ him.

‘I love it when you come home,’ Dwalin remarks lazily this time, as Nori pays back the favour of Dwalin bathing him, delighting in the simple yet profound intimacy of caring for him.

‘But you'd love it best if I was home all the time…’ And Nori cannot prevent doubt creeping into his voice, not even when he _knows_ , for have they not been together for long enough?

Dwalin reaches and lays his big hand over Nori’s tattoo. ‘I'm _always_ with you, my love. I know your wandering nature, you'd never live happy always in one place, I've always known that.’

Nori shakes his head and hides a smile, Dwalin knows him too well. He absently wipes at Dwalin’s big arm with the wash-cloth still in his hand. Steam rises from the tub, swirling around, as Dwalin reaches for him to steal a lingering kiss. Nori loses himself in the grasp of his big arms and the reassurance of his heart beating against his own where they press together chest to chest. This moment is for unhurried affection and foreheads pressing together, for revelling in the sweetness of homecoming and the recitation of the words both of them carry on their skin. Nori knows, and delights in the knowing, that once they are both bathed, and have lingered enough in the soft lamplight painting everything in a hazy golden glow, that then Dwalin will gather Nori in his arms and carry him on to bed where they’ll fall asleep in each others arms.

Eventually.


End file.
